Golden Krone Hotel: Success

Having just beat my game at 4:30am for the first time, I can now say success!

I’ve wanted to make a game about killing vampires with sunlight beaming through windows/holes in walls for a while. It was a lot harder than I expected to make that the focus of the game though. Mainly because of the layout required (if you don’t have a complete open floor, only the far edges get the sunlight) and also because it’s such a weird concept that I clearly had trouble getting my testers to care about that mechanic.

So it’s partly about the sunlight but more-so about playing as a character that switches back and forth between vampire and human. I’m sure this has been done to death, but I had a fun time implementing it. And this year I really tried to make as hardcore a roguelike as I could (instead of justa PDL).

Probably the coolest part of the game is the dynamic lighting. There is sunlight that beams in from the outside and torches that flicker. You can even toggle the torches depending on what you want to do. Hint: turning them off helps when you’re a vampire.

There’s a semblance of a story in there too, but don’t worry about it because the writing is complete shite. Sadly, the mini-bosses and potion crafting never made it in. But I did waste a decent amount of time screwing around with bfxr, so there’s cute sound effects.

Thanks, ya’ll. Haven’t played dark souls, but was reading about the hollow form; sounds interesting.

A quick note: this game has RANDOMIZED LEVELS. I hate to have to say that, but…. see, there’s a part in the beginning that is meant to be a tutorial of sorts. It’s very short (I can beat it in about 10 seconds) and it’s meant to subtly hint at the main game mechanic. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work as well as I had hoped; I haven’t seen anyone figure out that area as intended. What’s worse is, because I have this small hand crafted section in the beginning, several people have assumed the entire game is non-randomized. My worst fear is one of the reviewers will come to that conclusion (simultaneously confirming that they spent less than 5 minutes on the game). Maybe I should just take it out…

I did wonder about that section. I’ve spent maybe 90 minutes playing so far and I came to the conclusion that the first bit is maybe a quick XP farm. Clear out a room of vampires, easy bump to level 2.

The first three or four times I played I really wasn’t sure how much the floor was randomising. I kept heading in different directions thinking “What was over there? Was it like this before?” It didn’t take that long to realise it changed though.

I think the issue with having that first long room as tutorial section is that the game mechanics aren’t clear at that point, and the tutorial room doesn’t make them any clearer. It was a surprisingly long time before I realised I could use Blast to break blue blocks (are they windows? If so, why do they need to be broken to let light through?). I thought the ‘useless’ spell was just a broken feature. It also took longer than I’d like to admit to realise the shattered blue blocks were how light was getting in. I thought the sunlight was coming from overhead.

Basically, the tutorial room is more of a practice room. It’s good for having a go at using the core mechanic except that the game doesn’t mention that mechanic. The ‘tutorial’ doesn’t tell you anything about it. Once you start to figure it out (after about 8-10 attempts, in my case) you no longer need that room, and it doesn’t teach beginners anything, so it’s a bit redundant.

Alan, the blue blocks are stained glass windows, which to my understanding don’t necessarily let through a lot of light. At least, that’s my reasoning as to why you need to break them.

It sounds like you are playing v1.0. In v1.1, I tried to correct several of the problems you’ve mentioned:

-The stained glass windows are now brightly colored.
-A click to describe feature should help explain what they are.
-The “tutorial area” has been drastically reduced to a 1×10 hallway with a single enemy.
-I’ve added some better feedback to BLAST and described its use in the help section.

You may or may not want to try out v1.1 for reviewing (that’s your call), but I wanted to make you aware. I’m much happier with that area, but some of your complaints probably still apply somewhat. It was definitely a learning experience building that area. For the very first iteration (before release), youhad to use BLAST to beat the tutorial section and I watched an experienced roguelike player fail it three times before deciding BLAST shouldn’t be required.

[quote]I thought the sunlight was coming from overhead.[/quote]
Hmm. Didn’t expect anyone to think that! 🙂 It’s a tower, plus if you remove all torches from an area, it should be pitch black.

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Welcome!

This is the community blog for the Seven-Day Roguelike (7DRL) Challenge. Here you can share your plans, updates on progress (or lack of progress), helpful algorithms, screenshots of your game, and other 7DRL-related content!

This year’s challenge will run from Saturday 4th through Sunday 12th of March 2017. You can choose any 168-hour window within this period to develop your roguelike.